The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of blue spruce tree, specifically to the "Baby Blueyes" variety of blue spruce tree.
I discovered the presently described new variety in 1972 as a chance seedling growing in a cultivated group of grafted Picea pungens Moerheimi in a cultivated area at my nursery in Silverton, Oreg.
In the propagation of blue spruce trees it is conventional practice to graft a horticultural variety to seedling understock, using a lateral growing bud. The top of the seedling understock is cut off in order to allow the desired variety to grow as a new plant.
It usually is necessary to stake the grafted tree with a steel rod, to which the tree is tied, in order to get a plant having trained apical (terminal) dominance after having been grafted from a lateral growing bud. This procedure is followed in the propagation of all of the commonly grown select blue spruce varieties, such as Picea pungens Hoopsi, Picea pungens Kosteri, and Picea pungens Moerheimi.
This procedure was followed in the case of the plant which developed into my new, presently described variety. The understock was grafted and the top cut off the understock in order to allow the graft to grow.
Seven years passed before I discovered the new plant because it was growing in a group of plants of nearly the same color. During its growth, however, it demonstrated its unique characteristic of terminal dominance at an early age. It was conspicuously different because it did not need to be staked in order to make it grow straight.
My new blue spruce tree variety "Baby Blueyes" is further characterized by the following combination of characteristics:
(a) It is an upright evergreen conifer which assumes a natural, symmetrical pyramidal configuration and which is more dense and slower growing than blue spruce cultivars such as Picea pungens Hoopsi, Picea pungens Kosteri, Picea pungens Moerheimi, Picea pungens Bacheri, or Picea pungens Thomsoni.
(b) The needles are shorter and closer together than is the case in all of the above named cultivars.
(c) There are more buds on a single branchlet than in the case of the above named cultivars. The buds also are smaller.
(d) The dormant buds start spring growth one to two weeks after the above named cultivars. This helps to assure that the new buds will be less likely to freeze during a late frost.
(e) The foliage is sky-grey and more closely corresponds to The R.H.S. Colour Chart II of The Royal Horticulture Society, London, England Chart Number 449, page 130.
Asexual reproduction of my new variety by cutting and grafting thousands of trees from the mother tree and progeny three times removed has demonstrated that the foregoing unique combination of characteristics, in particular the characteristic terminal dominance at an early age, is fully established and is transmitted to successive generations.